In a typical messaging system, such as a voice-mail messaging system, it is necessary to "provision" new subscribers to the messaging service. Provisioning is the process of supplying subscribers with a mailbox and a specific set of features to enable telecommunications services. Provisioning of new subscribers is typically performed by a system administrator using some form of screen interface to enter information about the subscriber. For example, a screen interface provided to the system administrator allows the system administrator to enter information including, for example, the subscriber's last name, first name, class of service, telephone number, address, etc. Once this information is entered, the system then creates a "mailbox" for the subscriber on the system. At this point, the subscriber is able to begin using the messaging features of the system and can, for example, dial into the system to retrieve messages.
Recently, a number of messaging system providers have begun to develop "universal messaging" solutions that provide some form of integrated voice, fax, and e-mail messaging. Rather than design a completely new system, one approach to universal messaging involves combining an existing voice/fax messaging system with an existing e-mail messaging system, and providing the necessary logic and user-interfaces to make these two systems appear to be tightly integrated.
Universal messaging describes a level of messaging integration that gives users access to all available message types from the device of choice. There are two design approaches--unified and integrated--that fulfill the same goal. Unified messaging manages and stores all message types in one repository; integrated messaging uses messaging protocols for communication and coordination between separate message stores. Microsoft's Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) is prevalent in the unified architecture, while the integrated architectures typically use a Common Messaging Call (CMC) API.
Universal messaging provides e-mail and voice-mail service in a network environment, such as a Microsoft Windows NT network or a TCP/IP network. Universal messaging allows the exchange of e-mail messages with "foreign" systems through the use of standardized protocols, such as the X.400 and SMTP protocols, and often makes use of the open architecture of the CMC API. This allows PC client applications to make messaging requests to universal messaging service providers and also allows ClearPath/NX applications to invoke universal messaging services such as message store functions and address resolution. Universal messaging provides one view of a user's messages, with access from any device and through any access method. Thus, a universal messaging subscriber can access his voice, fax, and e-mail messages from such diverse devices as the telephone handset, a PC messaging client such as MS Exchange, or an internet web browser.
Many universal solutions suffer from fragmented administration and message stores. For example, a new user may have to be added to a voice-mail system and an e-mail system as a separate manual operation. System administrators configure, support, and maintain two separate networks, mailboxes, and directories. The interaction between two messaging systems is readily feasible if each side has sufficient detailed information about each subscriber to allow it to accomplish its various integrated functions. The information could be provided separately to each of the messaging systems, but this requires the administrator to provide the information twice. This is not only a burden on the administrator, but it also introduces additional opportunity for data errors and data synchronization problems between the two environments.
Thus, a disadvantage of this combined system approach of universal messaging is that when a new subscriber wishes to receive this service, the system administrator must provision the subscriber on both the voice/fax mail system and the e-mail system. Both systems are likely to have their own interface screens for this purpose, and it is cumbersome for a system administrator to have to enter much of the same information on both systems. The present invention provides a solution to this problem.